Qantas is the national airline of Australia, founded in Winton, Queensland on 16 November 1920. The word QANTAS stands for Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited. Paul McGinness and Hudson Fysh Fergus McMaster joined as Chairman, and Arthur Baird took care of aircraft maintenance. The airline's first aircraft was an Avro 504K. The aircraft had a cruising speed of 105 kilometres per hour and carried one pilot and two passengers. The airline started operating air mail services subsidised by the Australian government, linking railheads in western Queensland. 

Between 1926 and 1928, Qantas built seven de Havilland DH.50s and a single DH.9 under licence in its Longreach hangar. In 1928 a chartered Qantas aircraft made the inaugural flight of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, departing from Cloncurry. 

In 1934, QANTAS Limited and Britain's Imperial Airways formed a new company, Qantas Empire Airways Limited (QEA). The new airline commenced operations in December 1934 flying between Brisbane and Darwin using obsolescent DH.50 and de Havilland DH.61 biplanes. QEA flew internationally from May 1935, when the service from Darwin was extended to Singapore using newer de Havilland DH.86s. Imperial Airways operated the rest of the service through to London. In July 1938 this operation was replaced by a thrice weekly flying boat service using Shorts S.23 Empire flying boats. The Sydney to Southampton service took nine days, with passengers staying in hotels overnight. After Italy entered the war in June 1940, this became the Horseshoe Route between Sydney and Durban in South Africa with the South Africa – UK stage being by sea. This service was a vital line of communication between Australia and the United Kingdom and lasted through until Singapore fell in February 1942. 

Flying boat services were resumed with American-built Consolidated PBY Catalinas on 10 July 1943, with flights between Swan River, Perth and Koggala lake in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). This linked up with the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC, the successor airline to Imperial Airways) service to London, maintaining the vital communications link with England. 

In 1944 the Catalinas were augmented by conventional Consolidated B-24 Liberators, flying from Ratmalana via RAF Minneriya for refueling and then across the ocean to Learmonth. Later, Avro Lancastrians were flown on the route. They flew from Sydney to Gawler, stopping in Adelaide for refuelling, and on to Learmonth for the overnight stage. The service was renamed the Kangaroo Service and the passenger award became The Order of the Longest Hop. It was on this route that the Kangaroo logo was first used. After the war, the return trip could also go from Colombo to the Cocos Islands, then to Perth on to Sydney. These flights continued until 5 April 1946.

In 1947, QEA was nationalised, with the Australian Labor government led by Prime Minister Ben Chifley buying the shares owned by BOAC, followed by those of QANTAS Limited. Nationalised airlines were normal at the time, and the Qantas board encouraged this move. After the completion of the buyout, QANTAS Limited was wound up and liquidated to shareholders. 

Shortly after nationalisation, QEA began its first services outside the British Empire to Tokyo via Darwin and Manila with Avro Lancastrian. These aircraft were also deployed between Sydney and London in co-operation with BOAC, but were soon replaced by Douglas DC-4s in 1949. Services to Hong Kong began around the same time. In 1947 the airline took delivery of Lockheed L-749 Constellations and these took over the trunk route to London. Flying boats again entered the fleet from 1950, when the first of five Short Sandringham aircraft entered service for flights between the Rose Bay flying boat base on Sydney Harbour and destinations in New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Fiji, New Guinea and Lord Howe Island.

In 1952 Qantas expanded services across the Indian Ocean to Johannesburg via Perth, the Cocos Islands and Mauritius, calling this the Wallaby Route. The network expanded across the Pacific to Vancouver via Auckland, Nadi, Honolulu and San Francisco in early 1954 when it took over the Southern Cross Route of British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines (BCPA). The first of the airline's Lockheed 1049 Super Constellations was delivered in early 1954. 

In January 1958 Qantas became the second round-the-world airline, flying Super Constellations west from Australia to London through Asia and the Middle East on the Kangaroo route, and east to London on the Southern Cross route. It took delivery of new turboprop Lockheed Electra aircraft in 1959. 

In September 1956 Qantas ordered the Boeing 707 jet airliner and the first was delivered in June 1959. This order made the airline the first customer for the type outside the US. In March 1960 the airline ordered six of the turbofan derivative, Boeing 707-138B, with delivery scheduled for the following year. The first Qantas jet service was on 29 July 1959 from Sydney to San Francisco via Nadi and Honolulu. On 5 September 1959 Qantas became the third airline to fly jets across the North Atlantic, after BOAC and Pan Am, operating between London and New York as part of the service from Sydney. 

In 2012, Qantas reported a loss, citing high fuel prices, intense competition and industrial disputes. This was the first full year loss since Qantas was fully privatised 17 years previously, in 1995, and led to the airline cancelling its order of 35 new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, to reduce its spending. Also in that year on 26 March 2012, Qantas announced it would set up Jetstar Hong Kong with China Eastern Airlines Corporation, which was intended to begin flights in 2013, but became embroiled in a protracted approval process.

Qantas and Emirates began an alliance on 31 March 2013, in which their combined carriers offered 98 flights per week to Dubai, Losses continued into 2014 reporting year. In February 2014 additional cost-cutting measures to save A$2 billion, including the loss of 5,000 jobs. The carrier also reduced the size of its fleet by retiring aircraft and deferring deliveries; and planned to sell some of its assets.

The airline returned to profit in 2015, it also sold its lease of Terminal 3 at Sydney Airport, which was due to continue until 2019, back to Sydney Airport Corporation. After the airline profits share in 2015, Qantas announced that it had ordered eight Boeing 787-9s to serve the first non-stop intercontinental routes from Australia to London, starting with Perth and eventually adding Melbourne and Sydney to the network. 

In October 2016, Qantas' flying kangaroo was redesigned. The triangular container was reshaped to resemble the tail fin of a modern aircraft. The roo graphic was changed by losing some details such as the arms and bolstered with some gradated areas to simulate a three-dimensional feel. On Saturday, 24 March 2018, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was the first ever scheduled non-stop commercial flight between Australia and Europe. Flight QF9, was a 17- hour, 14,498 km journey from Perth to London Heathrow.

Also 2018 saw the airline switching its strategic transit point for Australia bound passengers from Dubai to Singapore after the airline changed its plans and focussed on the increase of traffic from the Asian markets. However the deal it made with Emirates back in 2013, continued for an additional 5 years with codeshare flights operated by Emirates.

During 2019, Qantas turned its attention to the upgrading and retrofitting its fleet of 12 Airbus A380 with new cabin and seats and increase connectivity options. It also set to receive more Boeing 787-9 to deploy them on the international routes across the pacific, asia and Europe. It has transferred many routes to its low cost subsidiary airline Jetstar and looking to open up new routes.

History Source: Wikipedia.org + Qantas.com